Vinsen said the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth added a $15 door charge for out-of-district visitors and $10 for out-of-district seniors in 2018.
Entry for those living within the boundary and those who are under 16 remains free.
Vinsen said volunteers filtered the residents from non-residents at the gardens and a similar operation could happen at the Sarjeant.
Sarjeant Gallery Trust chairwoman Nicola Williams said Vinsen’s proposal was “total poppycock” and also used the Len Lye Centre as an example - one that showed an entry fee did not work.
She said visitor numbers more than halved and it took them six years to recover.
“In New Zealand, there are more than 30 significant public galleries and only two currently have a door charge.
“If a tourist has been able to visit every other gallery in New Zealand for free, why would they want to pay for our gallery?”
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre director Zara Stanhope said there had been a lot of hard work to get visitor numbers back to 2017/18 levels.
“Obviously, we’ll never know what attendance might have been if ticketing wasn’t implemented,” she said.
“If you’re thinking of introducing something like that you have to think long-term.
The entry fee at the Len Lye Centre is split, with $5 from each ticket sale going to the Len Lye Foundation and the rest used to offset gallery operational costs.
Stanhope said people liked to know what the fee was going towards.
“If you said it’s going towards renovating the storage space or an acquisition for the collection, people can choose whether they want to support that thing or not.
He said the combined $15 entry fee would be very helpful for both organisations.
“I would hope that if the museum sold on an extra $10 - to upgrade the ticket to include the gallery - they would split it 50/50.
“There could be real co-operation in marketing it together.”
Museum director Bronwyn Labrum said she was open to any ideas about revenue generation but charges, even for out-of-towners, were a double-edged sword.
“For a regional museum, is out of town out of the city? Is it up the river? Is it the region we cover? There are all these sorts of questions.
“Considering the collection has been built up by the citizens of this region and with ratepayer and other public funding, the last thing we want to do is charge them again for something they have already contributed to.”
Labrum said she wanted the greatest access possible to publicly funded collections.
Bronwyn Labrum say entry fees "are a double-edged sword". Photo / Bevan Conley
Visitors have the option of giving a donation when visiting the museum.
“You can’t miss it - it’s right in the doorway where you come in. People who are surprised to find it’s free will often give us a donation of at least a gold coin, if not more,” she said.
Williams said revenue from entry fees was “absolute peanuts” compared to what could be received from donations, sponsorships and bequests.
She said one of the key things benefactors, sponsors and central government asked was: “What are the visitor numbers?”.
“A lot of the money is predicated on visitor numbers.
“Obviously, sponsors want mileage out of their dollar and benefactors want to see a benefit to the community.
“If we are charging school groups from outside the region - that could be thousands per annum - they won’t come. It will affect our visitor numbers and affect our ability to raise money.”
The Sarjeant was a gift and the trust wanted it to be as inclusive as possible - “not elitist”, Williams said.
“It’s just got to the stage now where the arts community has got to allow entry charges in some way.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
David Seymour says New Zealand is still waiting for further information before responding to calls to denounce the bombings as a breach of international law.
